Comparative efficiencies of different methods for removing blink artifacts in analyzing quantitative electroencephalogram and event-related potentials

Different methods for blink artifact correction in multichannel electoencephalogram (EEG) have been compared with respect to their efficiency and the relative systemic error of the estimation of the parameters of EEG spectra and event-related potentials (ERPs). Three methods of blink artifact correction have been used: distraction of the electrooculogram (EOG) signals from EEG signals, zeroing independent EEG components associated with vertical eye movement, and zeroing the principal EEG components related to blinking. The results have shown that these correction methods can substantially improve the accuracy of the estimation of quantitative EEG parameters while only slightly distorting signals from most EEG sites. It is concluded that wide use of these methods for EEG processing in fundamental and applied studies would be advisable.